Tolstoy worked on
Since arriving in England in the spring of 1897, Chertkov’s main interest had been in propagandising Tolstoy’s works throughout the world. He had begun by collaborating with John Kenworthy’s Brotherhood Publishing Company, but very soon had set up his own Russian-language publishing operation which took up most of his time. The goal of the Free Word Press, which was established near to the house with the apple orchard he had rented for his family near Purleigh, was to publish everything by Tolstoy that was banned in Russia, as well as articles he and other Tolstoyans had written. Everything was primarily destined for readers in Russia.91 There were nine publications in 1897 alone, one of which was Tolstoy’s afterword to the earlier Tolstoyan brochure ‘Help! A Public Appeal Regarding the Caucasian dukhobors’.92 Chertkov now expanded his activities to act as Tolstoy’s literary agent by orchestrating the publication of
Assisted by Tolstoy’s royalties, handsome contributions from wealthy Moscow merchants, unstinting donations from members of Kenworthy’s colony at Purleigh (which brought it to near bankruptcy)96 and English Quakers, over 7,500 dukhobors made it to Canada on several specially chartered ships between december 1898 and May 1899. It was an enormous enterprise, involving Arthur St John, who travelled out to the Caucasus and was arrested and deported from Tiflis in February 1898, and dmitry Khilkov, who had now completed his term of exile and took one group of dukhobors initially to Cyprus, where conditions did not prove to be satisfactory. Then in March 1898, Chertkov happened to read an article by the exiled anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin, who was living in London but had just been to Canada in his capacity as a geographer to lecture on the glacial deposits in Finland. In his article, Kropotkin wrote about the Mennonites who had left Russia in the 1870s to avoid conscription. They had settled in Canada, where they were now farming prairie land with considerable success. Chertkov invited Kropotkin to come to Purleigh to meet with him and the two dukhobor representatives who had come to discuss their situation. After Kropotkin had convinced them that Canada was indeed the best place for the dukhobors to settle, Aylmer Maude and Khilkov went on ahead to make arrangements (as a Tolstoyan, the seasick Maude was embarrassed at having to travel in a first-class cabin).97